April 5, 2013

The Rise of Vatican Think Tanks

“Am I creating wealth, or am I engaging in rent-seeking behavior?” If this question would be asked during a course of business ethics at George Mason University (GMU), few would be surprised. “Rent-seeking” is a term used often in “Public Choice” economics, and GMU has been the home of an academic center with that focus. The question, however, also appears in one of the most relevant publications released by the Vatican. That indeed is a surprise.

GMU had the late Nobel Laureate James Buchanan and still has Gordon Tullock on its faculty, two great pioneers of the discipline. In 1967 Tullock wrote “The Welfare Costs of Tariffs, Monopolies, and Theft” and later, in 1974, Anne Krueger—the former chief economist of the World...

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